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Tarfumes.com - Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple
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List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $10.85
Your Save: $ 5.10 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Anchor
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.9
EAN: 9780385489843
ISBN: 0385489846
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 1999-11-09
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: 1999-11-09
Studio: Anchor
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Editorial Reviews:
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Told by a former high-level member of the Peoples Temple and Jonestown survivor, Seductive Poison is the "truly unforgettable" (Kirkus Review) story of how one woman was seduced by one of the most notorious cults in recent memory and how she found her way back to sanity.
From Waco to Heaven's Gate, the past decade has seen its share of cult tragedies. But none has been quite so dramatic or compelling as the Jonestown massacre of 1978, in which the Reverend Jim Jones and 913 of his disciples perished. Deborah Layton had been a member of the Peoples Temple for seven years when she departed for Jonestown, Guyana, the promised land nestled deep in the South American jungle. When she arrived, however, Layton saw that something was seriously wrong. Jones constantly spoke of a revolutionary mass suicide, and Layton knew only too well that he had enough control over the minds of the Jonestown residents to carry it out. But her pleas for help--and her sworn affidavit to the U.S. government--fell on skeptical ears. In this very personal account, Layton opens up the shadowy world of cults and shows how anyone can fall under their spell. Seductive Poison is both an unflinching historical document and a riveting story of intrigue, power, and murder.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Should have ended 200 pages earlier!
Comment: I picked up this book because of the top reviews but found that after about 200 pages it got very repetative. What a tragedy...but personal memoir was just to long and self gratifying for me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book
Comment: A truly good read that will open your eyes and make you think about humanity and the human mind. Very easy to get through because the book was so interesting, but at times, I couldn't take it anymore because my mind was screaming out "why can't you see Jim Jones for the manipulative schemer that he is?!"
At times this book was hard for me to read because it made me somewhat depressed. However, this book is something I feel everyone should read sometime. It saddens me that something like this actually took place and that there could've been so much more done to prevent this tragedy had the authorities paid more attention to what Layton was telling them.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Compelling but very, very sad. A MUST read!
Comment: I read this book after hearing about it in an article recently, given the anniversary of the horrible events in Guyana. It's a compelling story, well-told and I truly could not put it down. I read it in 2 days.
I felt so sorry for Debbie Layton, her family and all the others who were fooled into joining Jones' so-called church. I was very young when the events in Jonestown occurred, and I learned a lot of things from this book that I never knew (socialism/communism link, government complacency, etc). Before reading Layton's account, I admit I was skeptical. How could any reasonable person fall into a cult? But after reading this, I can feel the desperation of Layton when she was recruited. She was very young, vulnerable and insecure. She was the perfect target for Jones. I think that anyone with an interest in psychology, cults, religion or true-crime would thoroughly enjoy Layton's account. I hope the people who escaped Jonestown have found peace.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Really?
Comment: I bought this book after watching the "Witness to Jonestown" documentary on MSNBC a few weeks ago. Layton was one of the featured former members, and I had high hopes for her book after seeing the high ratings it earned here. It didn't entirely disappoint -- the section that dealt specifically with Layton's escape was excellent, really suspenseful and riveting. I found myself holding my breath through whole paragraphs.
Unfortunately, I had some real problems with this book -- namely Layton herself, the beginning, and her distortion of reality over her brother. The first section of the book is all about Layton, her privileged childhood, her excellent eduction, and what a completely ungrateful brat she was. I disliked her from the start, and unfortunately this never changes. Some of her decisions are utterly horrifying, such as leaving her dying mother behind to die in agony, alone in the hell of Jonestwon. Also, while Layton is clearly an intelligent and educated person, she swallowed (or claims to have swallowed) laughable nonsense like "all men but Jim are homosexuals." WHAT? I found that hard to believe, but she insists that she was an innocent naif who knew nothing of the world (unlikely) and couldn't have known better. Also, she never objected to people being humiliated and beaten before she was living in Jonestown. It wasn't until her own life was miserable that she decided that those things might be a problem.
And then her "oh well, they didn't die" attitude towards her brother's victims (nice how she doesn't mention that he SHOT THEM IN THE BACK, huh?) stripped away the last bit of respect that I had for her. The final section of the book, which might have been better used for discussion on what she's learned from her ordeal, is spent trying to convince us that her brother is wrongly imprisoned. I personally have no problem with someone serving a long sentence for the attempted murder of two people, and was all the more irritated with this author for her questionable moral barometer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: MADNESS IN THE JUNGLE
Comment: I have been fascinated with the Jonestown story ever since the first reports of the massacre emerged in '78. The combination of elements; the jungle, a charismatic leader, poisoned flavor aid and an assasinated congressman all made for an irresistable tale. The action plays out more like a novel than a real life event. The cult story has been told several times, but always by outsiders. Now we have an eyewitness account from Debbie Layton, a top officer in the People's Temple.
Seductive Poison is not written in the professional style of other books, and it is all the more authentic because of it. Enough reviews have been written already, so I will not get into details, but will comment on a few aspects. First of all, this book will hold your attention and is never dull at any point. The ending will bring a stoic to tears. And if the description of Layton's escape from Guyana does not send shivers down your spine, you need to see a doctor.
In the end one cannot help but reflect on all the victims and what could have been. Children could have grown, lives of a sort lived out in the Jungle or elsewhere. Instead over 900 were snuffed out in hours of madness, part of one the strangest events on record.
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